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Nimrod
Historicity [[George Rawlinson]] believed Nimrod was [[Belus (Babylonian)|Belus]] (like Nimrod and Ninus a king not attested in Mesopotamian annals, but claimed by the later Greeks to have been a king of Assyria) based on the fact Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions bear the names [[Bel-|Bel- ]]. The word ''Nibru'' in the [[Akkadian language]] of Assyria and Babylonia comes from a root meaning to 'pursue' or to make 'one flee', and as Rawlinson pointed out not only does this closely resemble Nimrod’s name but it also perfectly fits the description of Nimrod in Genesis 10: 9 as a great hunter. The Belus-Nimrod equation or link is also found in many old works such as [[Moses of Chorene]] and the ''[[Book of the Bee]]''.Mos. Choren. 1. 6; 9; ''Book of the Bee'', 22 [[Nibru]], in the [[Sumerian language]], was the original name of the city of [[Nippur]]. Semiramis In the legend of Semiramis by Diodorus Siculus, Semiramis and NinusNinus is a mythical king of Assyria not attested in the far older and more comprehensive [http://www.aina.org/aol/kinglist Assyrian King List]. had a son named Ninyas. After King Ninus conquered Asia, including the Bactrians, he was fatally wounded by an arrow. After Ninus's death she reigned as queen regnant for 42 years, conquering much of Asia. Semiramis restored ancient Babylon and protected it with a high brick wall that completely surrounded the city. According to nineteenth-century Scottish minister [[Alexander Hislop]], he believed that Semiramis was an actual person in ancient Mesopotamia who invented [[polytheism]] and, with it, [[mother goddess|goddess worship]]. Hislop claimed in his book ''[[The Two Babylons]]'' (1853) that Semiramis was a [[Queen consort]] and mother of [[Nimrod]], builder of the Bible's [[Tower of Babel]], although biblical mention of consorts to Nimrod is lacking. Hislop believed Semiramis and Nimrod's incestuous male offspring to be the Akkadian deity [[Tammuz (deity)|Tammuz]], a god of vegetation, as well as a [[life-death-rebirth deity]]. Hislop maintained that all divine pairings in religions, such as [[Isis]] and [[Osiris]] and [[Aphrodite]] and [[Cupid]], are retellings of the tale of Semiramis and Tammuz. Hislop took literary references to Osiris and [[Orion (mythology)|Orion]] as "seed of woman" as evidence in support of his thesis. This all led up to Hislop's central claim: that the [[Catholic Church]] is a veiled continuation of the [[pagan]] religion of ancient [[Babylon]], the product of a millennia-old secret [[New World Order (conspiracy)|conspiracy]] founded by Semiramis and Nimrod. ;Criticism Modern scholars have unanimously rejected the book's arguments as erroneous and based on a flawed understanding of the texts, but variations of them are accepted among some groups of [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] Protestants. [[Lester L. Grabbe]] has highlighted that Hislop's argument, particularly his association of [[Ninus]] with [[Nimrod]], is based on a misunderstanding of historical Babylon and its religion. Grabbe also criticizes Hislop for portraying Semiramis as Nimrod's consort, despite the fact that she is never even mentioned in a single text associated with him, and for portraying her as the "mother of harlots", even though this is not how she is depicted in any of the texts where she is mentioned. [[Ralph Woodrow]] has stated that Alexander Hislop was an exceptionally poor researcher who "picked, chose and mixed" portions of various unrelated myths from many different cultures.Ralph Woodrow "''THE TWO BABYLONS'': A Case Study in Poor Methodology", in ''Christian Research Journal'' volume 22, number 2 (2000) of the (Article DC187) References